St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-06-08
INGALLS, AND THE NEGROES

Senator INGALLS, is blooming out as
presidential candidate. He is evil
IDENTIFY rlled over the prominence that
JOHN SHERMAN is gaining, and with
the purpose of attracting attention to
himself he made speech at Abilene
the other day, in which he formulated a
platform most striking for its novelty.
After lifetime of prominent Identified
ton with the Republican party, during
which he took an active part in bring
ing about the social and political
changes which most distinctively marked
Republican rule in this country it seems
a little strange to hear Mr.. INGALLS, use
this language in his Abilene speech:
Il have no hesitancy in declaring that
in this country negro suffrage has been
an absolute and unqualified failure"
That is an uneommOnly bold declara-
ton for a man of Senator INGALLS,
position to make. And yet it was
made with that peculiar earnest
ness of the senator's which leaves
no doubt as to the sincerity of his ut
terance. What is it that has induced
Senator INGALLS, to declare that negro
suffrage has been a failure2 Is it be-
cause he does not believe the negro to
be possessed of sufficient intelligence,
or that he is capable of being educated
up to good citizenship, or is it because
he finds the negro too independent and
seir-u55SSssrrting to be controlled by the
Republican leaders that iia has come to
look upon negro suffrage to be failure?
Those who are most familiar with the
senator's mode of reasoning will not
hesitate to accept the latter theory as
the true explanation of INGALLS,
chang of base. He belongs.to that class
OF philanthrophic statesmen in the Re-
publican party whose philanthrophy is
limited by their individual interests and
political ambitions. They favored negro
suffrage as long as they believed it
would be a means of retaining the Re
publican party in power. When it failed
to accomplish that end they regard it as
a failure. That is the size of the love
the Republican leaders OF. the INGALLS,
type have. for the negro race. If they
could restore the Republican party to
aScendancy by remanding the negro
race into slavery they would not hesitate
moment TO do it.
If Mr.. INGALLS, wants to become a
presidential candidate on the issue that
negro suffrage is a failure he will have
to look TO the Republican party for
nomination. The Democrats will not
take him up on any such platform.
The Democratic party is not responsible
for negro suffrage. TWAS suspicious in
the beginning that negro suffrage was
al experiment fraught with danger to
the republic and opposed the measure
until the negroes could be educated and
qualified for citizenship. Now that eN-
pertinent has demonstrated that the suS-
picion was iil-fOunded, and now that the
negroes have proved themselves more
capable of exercising the right of suf-
frage than was first imagined, the DEM
ocratic party is satisfied with the result.
1t is not only satisfied, but it stands
ready to protect the negro in that right
against the INGALLS, and the Repub-
lican leaders who wish to deprive him
of it. If Senator INGALLS, wants to be-
come the Republican candidate for
president on platform declaring that
negro suffrage is failure, the Demo
cratic party will grid up its loinS and
give him battle on that issue.